Mission 1 - Seeds of Heresy
++Inquisition Documentum – Archive OR-76335-1022++
++ Log-Entry 891-022++
++Segmentum Obscurus - Sector Askellon - Subsector Thule++
++Theodore Laskaris++
++Rank: Inquisitor++
+++++++++++++++++++
++Begin Entry++
What is Lord Sarawak thinking? What does he hope to accomplish? These are the questions that keep me awake at night. Does he think Juno will ignore him? He has stated his defiance too boldly to hope that it will go unanswered. Does he desire war? He has to know that this strife will not be tolerated and can only end in his execution, if not the destruction of all Aventine's people. I once thought Trajan Sarawak one of Askellon’s brightest minds and most promising rulers. I did not think he possessed the avarice nor the ego that would explain his current actions. Publicly disagreeing with sector governance is forgivable, but withholding Aventine’s tithes is not. While Trajan may truly believe in his “progressive” policies, he also knows that mankind will quickly fall prey to the xenos and the heretic if we do not hold together. I hope his separatist actions stem only from misguided ideals, but I must consider the possibility of darker sources.
While en route to personally discover the answers to these questions, a request for assistance has been brought to my attention. The request was not addressed to me, and is some 25 years old, and yet it has arrived on my desk and I find its contents equally intriguing and disconcerting. Discovered among the pending files of Archbishop Zedikiah, after he expired four months ago during a synod on Juno, the missive was submitted to my attention by the adept responsible for resolving his affairs, Scrivener-Archivist Rissanda Vero. Apparently unanswered, for reasons unknown to Vero, the message was a formal request for an Ecclesiastical Inquiry on Novabella from Harvester-Prelate Felissimo. Felissimo is the senior figure of the Adeptus Ministorum on Novabella and, other than the appeal for official Ecclesiastical support and assistance, the request provides no details on what the Harvester-Prelate intended to find. The fact that the Archbishop kept the file close for 25 years while seemingly failing to respond is interesting, to say the least.
Still, the reason I find this issue worthy of Inquisitorial attention is only partially related to Zedikiah’s behavior. Novabella, an agri-world with a small population, is only represented as a footnote in the annuls of Sector Thule. While there is evidence that mankind may have visited the world previously, the first official Imperial settlement was established on Novabella only 612 years ago and this was soon followed by a missionary fleet from Aventine that established Ministorum authority over the planet. As the inhabitants spread across the fertile world, tithes rose above token levels and the world’s governors provided shipments to Aventine and the Thule sector, with only one major incident of delinquency in its six century record. Yet there is no record of tithe for the past 28 years, and no collection has been sent from the Adeptus Administratum on Aventine. In fact, there is no record of any registered Imperial vessel visiting the planet in the past 20 years or any other official communication with Novabella’s inhabitants within that timeframe.
Whether due to the political upheaval in the Thule sector, or due to intentional masking by someone with significant authority, the planet of Novabella seems to have been forgotten. While I pursue my own inquiry on Aventine, I will send my acolytes to belatedly respond to Felissmo's request, and satisfy my curiosity. If nothing else, I can provide an official record of Imperial communication with Novabella for the archives on Juno and an assurance for the governing Kathrinkas family that Novabella has not fallen out of the God-Emperor’s sight.
++End Entry++
+++++++++++++++++++
Reference file - K1121-11 Level B Access Only - Transcribed from script
++
To My Most August Archbishop Zedikiah:
I can only beseech your lordship for aid, as I am surrounded with souls bereft of the Harvest-Emperor’s spirit. None can be trusted, for I cannot be certain who remains loyal and who has fallen. Foul things are stirring underneath the placid spirits of my people. Their smiles are false, and I know their hearts have become corrupted. Our world lives to provide its bounty to others, and should its offerings become tainted so would countless souls fall from the Emperor’s Grace.
I have served you and my world for many years, and know my people. My lord, you must trust me when I say action is needed immediately. Only sanctified forces from your own orders can prevent the spread of that which I dare not name. Darkness is growing ever greater around me. These are not the
ramblings of the paranoid, these are the warnings of the vigilant against the Dark Forces we strive against each day. Heed them and save my planet, I beg you. Novabella is a good world and deserving of the Emperor’s protection, and I eagerly await His forces to come to our side.
Yours in Devotion to the Harvest-Emperor, Blessed be His Light!
Ezzarth Felissimo
Harvester-Prelate
+++++++++++++++++++
++ Log-Entry 891-022++
++Segmentum Obscurus - Sector Askellon - Subsector Thule++
++Theodore Laskaris++
++Rank: Inquisitor++
+++++++++++++++++++
++Begin Entry++
What is Lord Sarawak thinking? What does he hope to accomplish? These are the questions that keep me awake at night. Does he think Juno will ignore him? He has stated his defiance too boldly to hope that it will go unanswered. Does he desire war? He has to know that this strife will not be tolerated and can only end in his execution, if not the destruction of all Aventine's people. I once thought Trajan Sarawak one of Askellon’s brightest minds and most promising rulers. I did not think he possessed the avarice nor the ego that would explain his current actions. Publicly disagreeing with sector governance is forgivable, but withholding Aventine’s tithes is not. While Trajan may truly believe in his “progressive” policies, he also knows that mankind will quickly fall prey to the xenos and the heretic if we do not hold together. I hope his separatist actions stem only from misguided ideals, but I must consider the possibility of darker sources.
While en route to personally discover the answers to these questions, a request for assistance has been brought to my attention. The request was not addressed to me, and is some 25 years old, and yet it has arrived on my desk and I find its contents equally intriguing and disconcerting. Discovered among the pending files of Archbishop Zedikiah, after he expired four months ago during a synod on Juno, the missive was submitted to my attention by the adept responsible for resolving his affairs, Scrivener-Archivist Rissanda Vero. Apparently unanswered, for reasons unknown to Vero, the message was a formal request for an Ecclesiastical Inquiry on Novabella from Harvester-Prelate Felissimo. Felissimo is the senior figure of the Adeptus Ministorum on Novabella and, other than the appeal for official Ecclesiastical support and assistance, the request provides no details on what the Harvester-Prelate intended to find. The fact that the Archbishop kept the file close for 25 years while seemingly failing to respond is interesting, to say the least.
Still, the reason I find this issue worthy of Inquisitorial attention is only partially related to Zedikiah’s behavior. Novabella, an agri-world with a small population, is only represented as a footnote in the annuls of Sector Thule. While there is evidence that mankind may have visited the world previously, the first official Imperial settlement was established on Novabella only 612 years ago and this was soon followed by a missionary fleet from Aventine that established Ministorum authority over the planet. As the inhabitants spread across the fertile world, tithes rose above token levels and the world’s governors provided shipments to Aventine and the Thule sector, with only one major incident of delinquency in its six century record. Yet there is no record of tithe for the past 28 years, and no collection has been sent from the Adeptus Administratum on Aventine. In fact, there is no record of any registered Imperial vessel visiting the planet in the past 20 years or any other official communication with Novabella’s inhabitants within that timeframe.
Whether due to the political upheaval in the Thule sector, or due to intentional masking by someone with significant authority, the planet of Novabella seems to have been forgotten. While I pursue my own inquiry on Aventine, I will send my acolytes to belatedly respond to Felissmo's request, and satisfy my curiosity. If nothing else, I can provide an official record of Imperial communication with Novabella for the archives on Juno and an assurance for the governing Kathrinkas family that Novabella has not fallen out of the God-Emperor’s sight.
++End Entry++
+++++++++++++++++++
Reference file - K1121-11 Level B Access Only - Transcribed from script
++
To My Most August Archbishop Zedikiah:
I can only beseech your lordship for aid, as I am surrounded with souls bereft of the Harvest-Emperor’s spirit. None can be trusted, for I cannot be certain who remains loyal and who has fallen. Foul things are stirring underneath the placid spirits of my people. Their smiles are false, and I know their hearts have become corrupted. Our world lives to provide its bounty to others, and should its offerings become tainted so would countless souls fall from the Emperor’s Grace.
I have served you and my world for many years, and know my people. My lord, you must trust me when I say action is needed immediately. Only sanctified forces from your own orders can prevent the spread of that which I dare not name. Darkness is growing ever greater around me. These are not the
ramblings of the paranoid, these are the warnings of the vigilant against the Dark Forces we strive against each day. Heed them and save my planet, I beg you. Novabella is a good world and deserving of the Emperor’s protection, and I eagerly await His forces to come to our side.
Yours in Devotion to the Harvest-Emperor, Blessed be His Light!
Ezzarth Felissimo
Harvester-Prelate
+++++++++++++++++++
++ Log-Entry 891-030++
++Segmentum Obscurus - Sector Askellon - Subsector Thule++
++Theodore Laskaris++
++Rank: Inquisitor++
+++++++++++++++++++
++Begin Entry++
My acolytes were correct; the temple was not made by humans. This is all I know for certain, at least until I can reach Lyhrus' library on return to Juno. I suspect this site may be connected to Inquisitor Sobel's discoveries in the Walcalla System, as I can recall similarities in design. Unfortunately, according to my acolytes, the creatures that attacked them left very little evidence of their existence, but the haunting constructs they seemed to have been protecting were still present. I have sent my inquiries to Sobel, along with vid-picts of the temple's iconography and sculpture, but only the Throne knows when or where my message might reach him. Whether he confirms a match, indicating the xenos threat reaches much farther than he thought, or not, meaning we may have discovered a new danger beneath our proverbial noses, this information must be communicated through the Ordos Askellon for proper investigation. With its corrupting influence clearly exemplified by the Ministorum's loss of control on Novabella, I oversaw the temple's complete destruction before my departure. Viceroy Martein Carrow happily provided the personnel to carry out the demolition.
Novabella has been fortunate to have a man like the Viceroy during its isolation. Simply keeping the planet operating according to the laws of Askelllon must have been a harrowing task while caught between the naivete of Lord Kathrinkas and the megalomania of Barahona. Unfortunately for Carrow, he will probably be dealing with this paucity of worthy leadership for the foreseeable future. I hope, however, that this will be the worst of his problems. Interrogator Sorian has evidence to suggest Novabella holds problems that could endanger the entire sector.
Our Great Enemy, the Ruinous Powers that are so adept at turning us against ourselves and despoiling all the God-Emperor has created for us, have been active on Novabella. Heretical activity of a far more deviant nature than that evidenced in the so-called "Eternal Children" is, or has been, present on the agri-world. While, the Governor and his staff seem to honestly believe that Novabella and her people have been generously spared the taint of the psyker for the past three decades, Sorian has presented me with good evidence that these cursed individuals were being actively, and clandestinely, hunted down on the planet. While some seem to have been brutally killed, most are unaccounted for. Typically the hunters' would most likely have been illicitly selling the live psykers to undocumented traders. However, there are far worse possibilities that open up when Sorian's evidence of cult activity is taken into account.
This will warrant a return to Novabella, and a full investigation. I will ensure it, but the eruption of civil war across the sector would ruin more than just my future investigations. Despite what that damned Istvaanian, Markurius, dares to profess in conclave, the destabilization of the sector will undo millenia of the Ordos' work across Askellon. I must return to Juno and secure the High Minister's cooperation for mediation with Aventine.
Next Lupercalia, it will have been 50 years. 50 years since I accepted my rosette from Inquisitor Paulinus in the ancient Temple of His Wisdom on Juno. Early in my career, I realized that the galaxy would never fail to surprise me with new threats to replace those we overcome. Weather they are disturbingly novel avenues of corruption within the myriad societies of the Imperium or new enemies revealing themselves between the stars, I fear the Inquisition's work is no closer to completion than when I entered its ranks. Even knowing this, I would never have expected the serene world of Novabella to conceal so many concerning secrets and, most disconcerting of all, I suspect the late Felissimo's request may not have been regarding any of those yet known...
++Segmentum Obscurus - Sector Askellon - Subsector Thule++
++Theodore Laskaris++
++Rank: Inquisitor++
+++++++++++++++++++
++Begin Entry++
My acolytes were correct; the temple was not made by humans. This is all I know for certain, at least until I can reach Lyhrus' library on return to Juno. I suspect this site may be connected to Inquisitor Sobel's discoveries in the Walcalla System, as I can recall similarities in design. Unfortunately, according to my acolytes, the creatures that attacked them left very little evidence of their existence, but the haunting constructs they seemed to have been protecting were still present. I have sent my inquiries to Sobel, along with vid-picts of the temple's iconography and sculpture, but only the Throne knows when or where my message might reach him. Whether he confirms a match, indicating the xenos threat reaches much farther than he thought, or not, meaning we may have discovered a new danger beneath our proverbial noses, this information must be communicated through the Ordos Askellon for proper investigation. With its corrupting influence clearly exemplified by the Ministorum's loss of control on Novabella, I oversaw the temple's complete destruction before my departure. Viceroy Martein Carrow happily provided the personnel to carry out the demolition.
Novabella has been fortunate to have a man like the Viceroy during its isolation. Simply keeping the planet operating according to the laws of Askelllon must have been a harrowing task while caught between the naivete of Lord Kathrinkas and the megalomania of Barahona. Unfortunately for Carrow, he will probably be dealing with this paucity of worthy leadership for the foreseeable future. I hope, however, that this will be the worst of his problems. Interrogator Sorian has evidence to suggest Novabella holds problems that could endanger the entire sector.
Our Great Enemy, the Ruinous Powers that are so adept at turning us against ourselves and despoiling all the God-Emperor has created for us, have been active on Novabella. Heretical activity of a far more deviant nature than that evidenced in the so-called "Eternal Children" is, or has been, present on the agri-world. While, the Governor and his staff seem to honestly believe that Novabella and her people have been generously spared the taint of the psyker for the past three decades, Sorian has presented me with good evidence that these cursed individuals were being actively, and clandestinely, hunted down on the planet. While some seem to have been brutally killed, most are unaccounted for. Typically the hunters' would most likely have been illicitly selling the live psykers to undocumented traders. However, there are far worse possibilities that open up when Sorian's evidence of cult activity is taken into account.
This will warrant a return to Novabella, and a full investigation. I will ensure it, but the eruption of civil war across the sector would ruin more than just my future investigations. Despite what that damned Istvaanian, Markurius, dares to profess in conclave, the destabilization of the sector will undo millenia of the Ordos' work across Askellon. I must return to Juno and secure the High Minister's cooperation for mediation with Aventine.
Next Lupercalia, it will have been 50 years. 50 years since I accepted my rosette from Inquisitor Paulinus in the ancient Temple of His Wisdom on Juno. Early in my career, I realized that the galaxy would never fail to surprise me with new threats to replace those we overcome. Weather they are disturbingly novel avenues of corruption within the myriad societies of the Imperium or new enemies revealing themselves between the stars, I fear the Inquisition's work is no closer to completion than when I entered its ranks. Even knowing this, I would never have expected the serene world of Novabella to conceal so many concerning secrets and, most disconcerting of all, I suspect the late Felissimo's request may not have been regarding any of those yet known...